I hear Lars charging through the house like a raging bull. My mouth is suddenly dry. I cross my arms in front of my chest in a subconsciously defensive gesture and warily watch the doorway to the kitchen. He soon fills the entire entrance, his straight black hair slightly mussed and his face black as a thundercloud.

“You made my farm hand quit,” he yells at me.

I snort and shake my head. “That’s a bit overdramatic.”

“Overdramatic?” he explodes. “He’s packed his bags and gone!”

“Oh, that was quick. I didn’t actually expect him to quit,” I say with a broad smile. “But it’s wonderful to know that I have such a profound effect on people.”

“What did you do?” he asks, taking an intimidating step toward me.

I’m usually not easily scared, but my heart rate rises and I have to swallow the urge to move backward. His eyes are spewing venom and a bunch of there-is-no-way-back-from-this vibes, and it suddenly occurs to me that I might have royally screwed up this time.

I shrug. “I refused to ride any other horse other than Thunder.”

He looks at me in disbelief. “You what?”

“You spent an entire evening teaching me to mount Misty and ride her around the ring on my own, and I might add, with no problems.”

He glares at me.

“While you’ve been away, I’ve been sneaking carrots and sugar lumps to Thunder and making friends with him. He trusts me now. Anyway, it’s time I learn to ride my horse,” I say defiantly.

His breath escapes in an exasperated rush. “First of all, Thunder isn’t your horse. Second, he is dangerous, and I specifically asked you to choose another.”

“I want Thunder and none other,” I say calmly.

He walks over to me, every step vibrating with menace and aggression. He is gritting his teeth so hard his handsome jaws must ache. He stops right in front of me, right in my personal space, and my hands itch to shove him backward. I dislike angry people as much as I despise drunk people.

“I thought you said that you wanted this to be an easy month. Weren’t you the one who intimated that you wanted to take the easy way out of everything?” he growls, looking at me as if he wants to skin me alive with a blunt cheese grater.

Up this close, he is terrifying, but I lay my hands on his rock-hard chest and shove at it with all my might. He doesn’t move an inch. I give up and take a step back instead. “I never said I wanted to take the easy way out. I stated that I didn’t want to be here, so don’t you dare put words in my mouth you freaking…big…wall you,” I spit.

Without warning, his hands shoot forward and grab my shoulders. He gives me a small shake. “You’ve done nothing but cause trouble since you came here, and I swear, one more cock up from you, and I don’t even care if it’s not your fault, I’m sending you home. So, you better fucking shape up and fast,” he shouts in my face.

“Obviously, you haven’t noticed because you’re so damned busy,” I cry hotly, “but I have shaped up. I do all my chores, even though they seem like they are chosen on the basis that they are the most disgusting tasks around. I get hardly any sleep, and I’ve not complained one single time. All I ask is that you allow me to ride the horse I want. It’s not such a difficult proposition, is it?”

‘Fucking hell! Am I talking to a brick wall here?”

I don’t notice Emma Jean approach, but suddenly she is between us with a hand on each of our shoulders. The little lady has a hard time reaching Lars’ shoulder, so she settles for his upper chest. “You two have a lot to talk about. Go take a walk outside and don’t come back until you’re happy with one another’s decisions.”

“I-” I begin to protest, but she cuts me off.

“It’s not open to discussion. You have an hour until dinner.”

I look at Lars and expect him to argue, but he simply nods tersely at Emma Jean. He clearly respects her as a person, but agreeing to her every whim is something I wouldn’t have expected from him.

As if we are two bickering children, Emma Jean steers us out the door and closes it with a firm click behind our backs. I’m still tense with anger as we cross the porch and start down the steps. He acts as if I am the worst person who has ever stepped foot on this ranch, but I know for a fact that I am the most hardworking.

When we’re on the long gravel road, Lars speaks once again. “Why did you threaten to sue him?”

“He was going to throw me on just any horse, and I was not about to let that happen,” I defend.

Lars stops and turns toward me, dragging his fingers roughly through his hair. “He was planning on forcing you onto a horse? He wouldn’t have done that.”

“Aww…how loyal. It could never be me telling the truth, could it?” I sneer, strangely and stupidly hurt that he’d rather believe that jerk than me.

He scowls. “Are you?”

“What do you think?” I retort crossly.

He stares at me with an odd expression.

I return the stare. “Someone I knew once said, you can’t really know anyone until you get them in an unexpected situation and there is no telling what they’ll do. He didn’t like that I wouldn’t pick another horse. And he’s a leech. He tried—”

“—What?” he asks, but he has suddenly become very still.

I look at him with surprise.

The change is remarkable. His nostrils flare as he inhales sharply.

“That’s right, your precious groom, the one that you’d rather believe than me, came on to me.”

“What did he do to you?” he asks, his eyes glittering with a totally different kind of anger.

I shift nervously. I can handle the raging bear, but I don’t know what to do with this ice-cold stranger. “Nothing. He found out quickly that I’m not his type. I’m not inflatable.”

He exhales audibly, some of the tension seeping out of him.

“He also didn’t like it that I said he had no balls,” I add, just to throw something into the awkward silence that has descended between us.

He blinks with surprise, then bursts out laughing.

I don’t acknowledge the sound and keep marching forward at a steady pace.

“You told him he didn’t have balls?” Lars asks, catching up with me easily and laughing loudly.

“Yes,” I agree shortly.

“You’re something else, you know.”

“Are you going to keep pawning me off to rookies who are afraid of a horse, or are you going to man up and teach me yourself?”

His chest rises and falls as he regards me.

If I’m going to convince him, now’s the time. “I wasn’t sent here to be miserable. I was sent to learn to ride, and I can’t do that without your help.”

“Tamara, most people take a while to master horseback riding, but you did it in a day. You’re already ready to ride. All that’s left to learn is barrel jumps,” he says.

“But what if I want to find out more? I don’t want to have come all the way to Montana only to learn how to sit on a horse’s back. I want to know how to live on a ranch, and race a horse over the open ground with the wind in my hair,” I tell him. I know it’s unlike Tamara to have aspirations that aren’t completely materialistic, but this is the real me. I’m kind of done acting and pretending to be someone else. I may look like her and go by her name, but that’s all. I’m going to be me.

Lars looks at me in confusion. “You do?”

“Yes, I do,” I say sincerely.

“You actually want to learn about life on a ranch?” he repeats incredulously.

“Yes, Lars. I want to learn about the ranch, the animals, the seasons. Yesterday, I made a garlic braid with Emma Jean and I really enjoyed it.”

“It was like pulling teeth to make you do anything a few days ago. What’s changed?”

“I guess I just realized that I wasn’t acting like the person I want to be.”